ion of
feeling or sensations; no comprehensiveness in an infinity of separate
actions. The individual never reflects upon himself as a whole; he can
hardly regard one act or part of his life as the cause or effect of any
other act or part. Whether in practice or speculation, he is to himself
only in successive instants. To such thinkers, whether in ancient or in
modern times, the mind is only the poor recipient of impressions--not
the heir of all the ages, or connected with all other minds. It
begins again with its own modicum of experience having only such vague
conceptions of the wisdom of the past as are inseparable from language
and popular opinion. It seeks to explain from the experience of the
individual what can only be learned from the history of the world. It
has no conception of obligation, duty, conscience--these are to the
Epicurean or Utilitarian philosopher only names which interfere with our
natural perceptions of pleasure and pain.

There seem then to be several answers to the question, Why the theory
that all knowledge is sensation is allied to the lower rather than to
the higher view of ethical philosophy:--1st, Because it is easier to
understand and practise; 2ndly, Because it is fatal to the pursuit of
ideals, moral, political, or religious; 3rdly, Because it deprives us of
the means and instruments of higher thought, of any adequate conception
of the mind, of knowledge, of conscience, of moral obligation.

...

ON THE NATURE AND LIMITS Of PSYCHOLOGY.

O gar arche men o me oide, teleute de kai ta metaxu ex ou me
oide sumpeplektai, tis mechane ten toiauten omologian pote
epistemen genesthai; Plato Republic.

Monon gar auto legeiv, osper gumnon kai aperemomenon apo ton
onton apanton, adunaton. Soph.

Since the above essay first appeared, many books on Psychology have been
given to the world, partly based upon the views of Herbart and other
German philosophers, partly independent of them. The subject has gained
in bulk and extent; whether it has had any true growth is more doubtful.
It begins to assume the language and claim the authority of a science;
but it is only an hypothesis or outline, which may be filled up in many
ways according to the fancy of individual thinkers. The basis of it is
a precarious one,--consciousness of ourselves and a somewhat uncertain
observation of the rest of mankind. Its relations to other sciences
are not yet determined: they seem to be al